Illinois Junior Academy of Science Fall 2011 Dear Sponsors: Welcome to another year of science fair! I recently attended this year s first State IJAS Board meeting a couple of weekends ago, so I want to provide you with both some State and Regional IJAS updates. State IJAS Information John Bobek (rustyjb@prodigy.net) State IJAS president, has just sent the State fall mailing to you. If you didn t receive it, please let me know. It should also be posted on the State IJAS web site: www.ijas.org. The IJAS Policy and Procedure Manual is updated in even-number years, so there are no new revisions. The manual is available on the State IJAS web site: www.ijas.org. The Policy and Procedure Manual is revised every other year, so if you have suggestions for revisions, please let me know. It will be one of my responsibilities as in-coming IJAS president to head a committee to revise it summer 2012. State registration is $75 for each school. The registration form is on the State web site, and registration is due by December 31, 2011. There are increased fees for registering late. You can check to see if your registration has been completed by checking the school list on the State web site. Please note that the membership chair is now Jim Townsend, to the mailing address for State dues has changed. Jim actually emailed individual forms to all prior sponsors over a month ago, so if you didn t get one, please let me or Jim (jtown103@gmail.com) know. Please register by the deadline, as the number of schools in the region is counted in the calculation for the number of students that we can send to the State Exposition. Region V Project Session We hope that your school will participate in this year s Northern Illinois Region V Science Exposition to be held on Saturday, March 17, 2012, at the Northern Illinois University Holmes Student Center in DeKalb, Illinois. If you are not participating this year, I would appreciate an email so I do not expect anything from your school. Registration materials are due to me by March 2, 2012. (I will try to schedule next year s regional fair for mid-march in 2013, and will do our best to avoid conflicts and to provide as much time as possible for students to complete their projects.) Excel sheets for submitting student and project information are attached. We will continue to work digitally this year. I will send these again as the project session date approaches. Region V Paper Session The Paper Exposition is scheduled for March 24, 2012 at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; the registration and papers are due to me by February 15, 2012. Mail papers to me, c/o IMSA, 1500 Sullivan Road, Aurora, IL 60506. Please email student and judge Region V paper data in the appropriate, attached Excel spreadsheet.
Safety/Scientific Review Committee/Endorsements By December 31, 2011 students must apply for waivers, exemptions to safety policies, and so forth. You should access the Policy and Procedure Manual on the IJAS site: www.ijas.org. Don't forget to have your students complete any required endorsement forms; carefully review the safety section in the manual. Please contact me if you have safety questions. I am continuing as chair of the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) which addresses requests for exemptions from the State IJAS safety procedures. The State requests that only sponsors and teachers forward exemption requests; students and parents should not contact either the regional chair or the State SRC. Contact me for safety approval, and/or questions concerning humans, vertebrates, microorganisms, DNA, and so forth. If you have a question about a project, please contact me before the investigation begins. Limit the use of vertebrates; you may not change their normal environment. There is no waiver needed if the student is working in an approved lab. However, you will need to notify the state of this before the State Exposition; contact Jake Carter at jcarter@cps.edu. Please see the State IJAS mailing on this. If you are uncertain, contact me or Jake. State IJAS Exposition The State IJAS Exposition is May 4 (paper session) and May 5 (project session), 2012 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Future state fair dates are below. See web site www.ijas.org for details. May 3 & 4, 2013 May 5 & 6, 2017 May 9 & 10, 2014 May 4 & 5, 2018 May 8 & 9, 2015 May 3 & 4, 2019 May 6 & 7, 2016 May 8 & 9, 2020 Region V did very well at State in 2011, with 75% of our students at State receiving a gold award! This is one of the highest percentages of all the regions. This is due to your excellent work - keep it up! The number of students that a region can send to the State Exposition is determined by the number of gold and silver awards that a region receives the previous year at State, plus the number of schools registered in the region. So it is important that schools register with IJAS by the December deadline. Students who do not show up for State competition have negative ramifications on our State quota for the next year. Intel ISEF Region V is an affiliate fair of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF). In order to be eligible for Intel ISEF students must submit their project information (proposal and safety assessment) to me in the fall before the investigation starts so that it can be reviewed. Review is required whether there are safety concerns or not. This competition is open only to high school students. Students must compete at the Region V Project Exposition; only three projects from our affiliate fair can advance to Intel ISEF competition. Broadcom MASTERS National Competition for Middle School Students The Society for Science and the Public (SSP), which sponsors Intel ISEF and the Intel Science Talent Search, is continuing the Broadcom Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars (Broadcom MASTERS ). More information can be found at: http://www.societyforscience.org/masters. As an SSP-affiliated fair, we will have the opportunity to name our top 10% of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students to be nominees for this national competition. Nominees will need to complete an on-line registration by June 2012. Three-hundred national semi-finalists will be announced in August. Thirty finalists will be selected and awarded an all expense paid trip for both the student and one parent/guardian to Washington DC to attend the finals in the Fall of 2012. Last year, the first year of this competition, we had one student from Region V named as a semi-finalist! Opportunities for Region and State IJAS Leadership and Participation Thanks to all who helped at the region and state fairs last year. We need your continued support as safety judges and judges at the regional and state levels. Since I have become the president-elect of State IJAS, there is an opportunity for someone from Region V to additionally represent us at the State level. You ll
note that I m a judging category chair; there are opportunities to support IJAS in a number of ways at either the State or Regional level. Some of this support can simply be taking on a responsibility on the day of the State or Regional Exposition, without a lot of advance work required. At the Regional level we might look for additional special prizes and/or consider some fund raising efforts, for example. Let me know if you are interested, or have ideas. Contact Information Judy Scheppler (quella@imsa.edu, 630-907-5899) IJAS Region V Director Region V Project Session Coordinator Region V Paper Session Chair State IJAS President-elect State Scientific Review Committee Chair State Cellular and Molecular Biology Category Judging Chair State IJAS: www.ijas.org Region V Information: http://www.niu.edu/clasep/fairs/science/ I am once again looking forward to working with all of you this year! Please contact me if I can provide any assistance or answer any questions. Judith A. Scheppler, Ph.D. Attachments: - State IJAS scoring rubric revised 2010 - Excel file for submitting project information to Region V - Excel file for submitting judges information for project session to Region V - Excel file for submitting paper information to Region V - Excel file for submitting judges information for paper session to Region V Note When you email a spreadsheet, please label it with your school name and IJAS number, plus ProjectJudgeData, StudentProjectData, and so forth: IMSA5048StudentProjectData.xls
Region V Information For religious reasons only, arrangements can be made for Friday 5 PM judging at Northern Illinois University. Contact Judy by March 2 to arrange this. Region V Fair: Saturday, March 17, 2012 at: Northern Illinois University Holmes Student Center Registration forms will be sent out in February. 1. Please send $15 per project by March 2, 2012 to IJAS Region 5. Please - No late projects; late projects may be charged an additional $5 fee for entry. 2. Project and judge data must be submitted by email to Judy Scheppler using the supplied Excel spreadsheet. Please do not modify or re-format the spreadsheet cells. The data can be submitted no later than March 3. 3. A copy of the abstract, safety sheet, and any microorganism and/or vertebrate endorsements used must be sent by US Mail with your application check-- These will not be returned to you. (These can be submitted later than February 26th if necessary, but must be received before March 10). 4. By December 31, 2011 you MUST apply for waivers for work with vertebrates, and so forth. There is no waiver needed if students are working in an approved lab, however you must send a copy of the approved lab procedures to the state. See the State IJAS information/mailing about this. Region V Paper Session: Saturday, March 24, 2011 at: IMSA See registration papers for this in this mailing. Papers must be new research - not just the paper from last year's project. 1. Send $15 for each paper by Feb. 15, 2012. 2. Paper and judge data must be submitted by email using the supplied Excel spreadsheet. 3. One judge for every 2 papers (Also another judge for every 2 essays.) 4. Send four copies of the paper. These will not be returned to you. The paper maximum is 30 pages including everything figures, tables, bibliography, and so forth. Make checks payable to: IJAS Region V Mail checks, abstracts, forms, papers and so forth to: Judy Scheppler Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy 1500 West Sullivan Road Aurora, IL 60506 Phone: 630-907-5899 Fax: 630-907-5939 Email: quella@imsa.edu Secretary : Maria Magana, 630-907-5084
Illinois Junior Academy of Science Northern Region 5 The paper session is scheduled for Saturday, March 24, 2012 at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (for directions to IMSA, see www.imsa.edu). Papers are due by February 15. To enter a student's paper in the regional paper session, send the following by February 15: 1. $15.00 entry fee to cover paper session expenses. Please make checks payable to IJAS Region 5 - $15 per paper entered. 2. Four stapled copies of the student's science project report, no more than 30 pages total. Send copies; students must always keep their original. This paper must be original research this year - not last year's project. 3. Name and address of a qualified judge for each two papers entered - round up. (1 paper requires one judge, 3 papers require 2 judges, and so forth.) Judges will receive the papers by mail this year, so they may read them ahead of time. Judges should not mark on the papers; and should make sure to return all of the papers to Region V IJAS on the day of paper judging. Tentative Schedule of Events at Paper Session 8:30 am. Meetings for judges and contestants 9:00 Paper presentations begin. Limited to 10 minutes with 5 minutes for questions by judges. 2-3 judges per room. Each room will have 5-6 papers to read and judge. Only one student will be in the room at a time with the judges. (If necessary, students may leave after their presentation.) 11:30 or so - Generally presentations are finished; awards announced by noon, Paper session people will know who is going to State. Essay contest entries will be judged and notified later.